99 red balloons | balloon

Jul 8, 2023
32
11
8

They were lucky on the moors that they rarely saw twolegs. Occasionally near the horseplace Lilacstem could recall smelling and seeing a twoleg traipsing around the area but other than that the interactions with twolegs were few and far between mercifully. Until today it would seem.

Lilacstem had broken ahead of her patrol, chasing a mouse that she narrowly missed when something caught her eye. Tangled in a gorse bush was a deflated balloon, the shiny material it was made of glinting in the sun. Lilacstem had never seen one before but she knew whatever it was clearly belonged to twolegs - from her short distance away she could smell that it reeked of them. Behind her she heard another clanmate approach and gestured towards the balloon with a flick of her head. "What do you suppose that's for?"
 



Everything that twolegs did was incredibly strange to her. Their monsters, their strange way of walking on their hind legs, their fire sticks. In her opinion, they were unpredictable and deadly, best to stay away from them and everything involving them. They were a symbol of weakness, of strangeness, of everything bad she could ever think of. When she comes to stand next to Lilacstem her nose wrinkles in disgust. The shiny thing tangled in the gorse reeked of twoleg and, in her experience, it was best to avoid anything having to do with twolegs. "Who knows? It looks unlike anything I've ever seen before" while she does harbor some curiousity, she has learned that twoleg things are better left alone.

"Perhaps we should dispose of it..." she says, eyes never leaving the strange object. If it was dangerous it was best it was gone from the territory. Being a lead warrior, in her mind, meant keeping her clan safe from dangers such as this. Slowly and reluctantly she creeps forward until she is standing right in front of it. Then, with one paw she reaches out and swats the thing and jumps back. It makes a rustling sound when she touches it, a noise she is not fond of but it otherwise seems harmless. "Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this thing?" she asks, looking back at the rest of the patrol.

 
If it were possible, Mousepaw would drive all the twolegs out into other territories or gone completely. Let the other clans deal with them and maybe they'd snuff each other out somehow, but that wasn't possible, and he knew that. They were too big and too stupid to understand their words, so he would have to deal with them leaving their garbage in places it didn't belong, like in their territory or in the ears of cats. Nose wrinkled as the apprentice heard the noise that came from the balloon when Bluepool swat at it, eyes widening slightly in alarm for a second before he felt his fur lay flat on his body once more, and tail lashed out behind him in frustration.

"We should push it with a stick and send it down the river for the RiverClanners to deal with." He'd speak, small smug smile on his maw as he did so. Maybe one of them would try to catch it thinking it was a fish, RiverClanners were stupid like that after all. "I just don't wanna touch it, looks too... odd." Fake, potentially toxic. Nothing about it was natural, and he didn't want all that unnaturalness rubbing off on him.
  • [ooc]
  • windclan (sootstar) loyalist
    dirty fighter/will aim to kill
    will bully anyone (some more than others)

    likely to attack first
    powerplay peaceful actions okay
    ping if needed in a thread
  • 67979049_MZITqZdFire2IhL.png
    8 months old
    ftm calico -- he/him
    tunneler apprentice

    large ears
    always looks grumpy
 
Snakehiss had only spotted twolegs from afar, but had obviously never been up close and personal with one. Anything having to do with them smelled; their territory, their mutts, their objects that were found upon WindClan territory...

Speaking of which, the patrol happens upon a floppy and colorful-looking object that sticks out like a sore thumb against WindClan's natural greenery. The horrible smell of latex and rubber hits his nostrils, causing him to wrinkle his nose with utter distaste.

"I'm certainly not going near it." He doesn't have to be very close to notice the unusual, almost fishy-like stench wafting off of the remains of the twoleg object. Mousepaw had suggested removing the rubbish with a stick, so he could go ahead and do that if he felt so inclined. Snakehiss wasn't going to risk getting that foul-smelling thing anywhere on him.
 
The lead warrior approaches alongside Mousepaw, wincing as the thing lets out a shriek in response to Bluepool's touch. It's an awful noise, a sound of pain, and the calico is glad that the intruding object is being put in its place. But aside from the sound, Bluepool's strike hasn't seemed to affect it much. Lilacstem has asked what they suppose the thing is for, and Scorchstreak isn't certain but she doubts that it is used for any sort of good. Golden eyes narrow, and the calico leans closer to inspect the object. It smells terrible, unnatural, but there is no blood. There is no tale of past kills clinging to the shiny pelt of the strange object.

With a huff, the she-cat murmurs, "It doesn't look like it will harm us." But then again, did Dandelionpaw look like he would harm us? Their star-touched clan has seen far too many thorns residing amongst the roses. They have all been bitten by the wolves amidst the sheep. Scorchstreak has learned to judge danger not simply by appearance. "But I don't see any point in risking injury." She searches around for a branch, a stick, anything to push the thing around without touching it. After a moment she manages to find a small, but usable stick, and carries it back to her clanmates. "Let's send it down the river, then," she says, setting the stick down for another to pick up. While she is eager to see this thing off of their territory—and into the territory of RiverClan—she does not see the point in doing it herself and risking being attacked at close range. Turning to glance at the others, she asks, "Would anyone like to do the honors?"
[ LIKE A RATTLESNAKE ]
 
The balloon squeals just to be touched, and Scorchpaw winces, having tailed behind @Badgermoon until the discovery of the mysterious object. It reminds her of frogs and the way they sing, rare as they are to find on the moors, their throats expanding until shiny and near-transparent. Maybe the twoleg thing had once belonged to a large frog; one larger than Scorchpaw could ever hope to see. But it reeks too much like the upwalkers to truly be natural, she thinks, and as the patrol agrees to send it down the river, she finds her need to get closer to it increasingly unquenchable. It seems strange, but not dangerous-- did it cry because it was scared? It hardly looked alive. Maybe it was some new kind of pet the twolegs were playing with, deciding that cats and dogs and horses weren't enough. Her ears flick with quiet curiosity, but her flame-streaked face remains set hard in a scowl.

"I bet those kittypets in SkyClan would know what it is," she murmurs, acerbic. Those cats probably liked their kibble more than any prey they got lucky to catch. When her mother (who she has been avoiding the gaze of, she realizes) asks if any cat in particular would like to send the thing down the river, Scorchpaw sees her chance.

The girl picks up the stick that her mirror has offered, figuring that one good poke would send it into the river for RiverClan to find. They aren't all too far from the gorge, so it won't be hard to send it right over. Scorchpaw jabs the stick into its shiny red skin, hoping it would startle the thing enough to send it running right into the river-- but it doesn't. Instead, it lets out an ear-shattering pop, and Scorchpaw nearly leaps out of her skin at the noise. Her fur sticks on end as she recovers herself a tail-length away from where the balloon was-- or, where it had been. Its bulbous form had evaporated into nothing more than a few scraps of red vinyl fur.

"... Did I kill it?" she wonders, bi-color gaze instinctively finding her mother's. She really hadn't meant to; she would have loved for RiverClan to take care of the pest instead. Guilt begins eating at her paws. "Um... sorry."​
 
One unwelcome side effect of being near the Horseplace meant that Twoleg objects found their way onto the moor every now and again. Badgermoon didn't like or trust the humans' bizarre garbage, because while most of it appeared to be harmless, you never knew. Sometimes Twolegs came along with their Twoleg objects, like the ones who had tagged Adderpaw's ear. Hopefully, whatever this round, shiny thing was, it wasn't precious enough for the Twolegs to come tromping onto WindClan land to find it. Badgermoon frowned at the glossy plastic: his snow-capped ears briefly flattened at the noise it made. Scorchstreak suggested casting it into the water and even found a stick for the purpose. Vaguely, he wondered if it was appropriate to put such an unnatural object into the water from which all Clans drank - but he had no time to voice his concerns, as his apprentice stepped forward and...killed it?

"Oh." said the deputy, nonplussed. What a noisy creature this was! Or...had been? Twolegs seemed uniquely capable of making objects that seemed alive yet not alive. He remembered the rustling, wind-tossed objects which had appeared on multiple occasions, attacking Yewberry and Mintshade. Badgermoon tried to flick his tail along his daughter's flank, offering her an approving smile. "Well done, I think, Scorchpaw." It didn't matter that it was dead, did it? It wasn't as if it had seemed keen to attack any of them. He took a few steps forward and bent to sniff at the popped balloon, fascinated by its abrupt reduction in size. "No blood or anything." mused the bicolor tom. It was as if its skin had split, but instead of meat and organs, there was absolutely nothing inside. Badgermoon stepped back and sat down, shrugging. "Bah. Twolegs. I think I'd feel better if we buried it, at this point. It may rot in the water."